Dayton "Dirt" November 6, 2009

The days have grown short and its time to finish your fall gardening chores before the winter snow sets in.

This weekend is the last time I would put on a winterizer fertilizer on your lawn as putting it on later might negate the beneficial effects of the nitrogen and potassium portions of the fertilizer as they are readily leached through the soil because of falling ground temperatures in which the lawn grasses cannot pick up and store these nutrients.

You still have plenty of time to plant Holland flower bulbs as they will have plenty of time to root in this fall and then produce their promise of spring which is already inside the bulb.

It is still too early to cover tea and floribunda roses with a heavy mulch for winter protection but you can trim any rose now (except climbers) to prevent wind whipping.

A trim to about 2-3 feet is all that is needed for shrub, tea or floribunda types.

We’re now in the process of collecting branches for grave blankets and have already cut scotch pine for our cascading types of blankets.

We use Colorado Spruce for other types of blankets but we don’t like to cut the branches too early as they tend to shed needles when processed inside the greenhouse.

Our Christmas trees will be coming from southern Ohio again this year but will not include any Douglas Fir or Concolor Fir due to a late frost that killed the new growth on these trees.

The dead growth is just hanging on the trees even now and doesn’t make a pretty picture although the trees should look fine next year after a flush of growth in May.

We’re just about buttoned up for winter and planting, mulching and building in Wolf Creek Gardens and our new building is going strong.

Already I’m excited about this coming spring as I know its around the corner once February has passed.

Tom